Takao Omori vs. Yuma Anzai – Champion Carnival (Block B)
Anzai scored a lot of upsets in his young career, but none more shocking than him overcoming Kyohei Wada off his meds. Yes, the Wada Dementia was in full effect here and it made for a weird match. Part veteran discipline, part Masanobu Fuchi closed fist tribute. In a way, it was Anzai’s first taste of authentic All Japan Weirdness. Which means this was his most important match yet. **1/2
Shotaro Ashino vs. Hokuto Omori – Champion Carnival (Block B)
Very fun match, both for Lore Reasons and for Wrestling Reasons. Zen Nihon Freaks will remember that Hokuto betrayed Ashino when Enfants Terribles imploded into Total Eclipse. At the time, Omori was very much the little brother figure of that storyline. Today, Ashino treated him as an equal and they had a hard-fought back and forth. Time flies, brother. With the recent Heavyweight Hokuto push and Ashino’s all-around bad luck, there was actual drama when Omori hooked on his new submission finish. Unsurprisingly, Ashino always kicks ass in these 7-minute tournament matches and this was par for the course. ***1/4
Jun Saito vs. T-Hawk – Champion Carnival (Block A)
A match where the Hawkster alternated between working the leg and working the crowd. Possibly unfamiliar with the mythical Leg Match, Jun seemed unsure how to PROCEED here and let the Strong Hearted One do everything. Not much to write home about. **1/2
Rei Saito vs. Manabu Soya – Champion Carnival (Block B)
Running these Saito matches back-to-back inadvertently exposed the gap between the brothers. There was such a stark contrast between Jun’s performance in the last match and Rei’s confident manhandling of Soya in this one. This bearded beast is growing before our very eyes and turning into a very competent monster archetype. Soya – a fine supplier of beef himself, was more than game to throw some chops and lariats. You’ve got to (power) fight for your right to party. ***
Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi, Atsuki Aoyagi & Ryo Inoue vs. Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura, Black Menso-re & Hideki Shrek Sekine
There we have it. The feud that all true Zen Nihon Freaks have been waiting for – Kento vs. SHREK. Can you believe that the final stage of Inokiism is actually taking place in AJPW!? Baba is either rolling in his grave or having a blast in Wrestling Heaven. No one can say. In classic All Japan house show 6-man fashion, everyone worked around the Kento comedy and did a lot of cool shit. Good vibes. ***
Cyrus vs. Ryuki Honda – Champion Carnival (Block A)
The vibes here were not as good. It started well enough, Honda eating an appropriate ass whooping and selling his ass off. But they quickly went into a wonky nutshot finish, which felt 100% wrong for a Cyrus match. Even taking aside the bad ending, Cyrus should simply not be losing to Honda in his current weirdo heel form. *3/4
Satoshi Kojima vs. Yoshitatsu – Champion Carnival (Block A)
Two of New Japan’s finest specimens delivering two stars worth of professional wrestling for YOUR viewing pleasure. Kojima’s Tired Old Man gimmick was a big hit with me when he was duking it out with the hardest hitters in NOAH, but against Yoshitatsu it seemed like an odd artistic statement. Even with the fans enthusiastically backing Koji’s greatest hits, this never quite moved beyond Two Guys Having A Wrestling Match. **1/2
Suwama vs. Shuji Ishikawa – Champion Carnival (Block B)
The last Carnival match between the former Violent Giants took place at the height of the COVID apocalypse in front of literally no one. To make up for their last meeting’s lack of audience, Wammer and the Shoojster spent half of this one in Crowd Brawling Mode. Their generosity knows no bounds. Architecture-wise, it wasn’t their most inspired encounter, but it still found its way into crunchy slug-fest territory. At the end of the day, I’m never going to say no to two beefcakes throwing each other around, even if it comes with 5 minutes of Memphis parody filler and some slightly questionable execution. ***
